BitterSweetCandy
by allurement
Summary: FugakuKushina. ‘There is nothing of Kushina in this boy,’ Fugaku thinks. But then Naruto’s face splits into a grin, so bright and sincere and like his mother’s that Fugaku can feel his heart breaking all over again.


**Title:** BitterSweetCandy  
**Fandom:** Naruto  
**Pairing:** FugakuKushina. _Again, _baby.  
**Summary:** _He even _sounds_ like his father_, Fugaku thinks. _Where is Kushina? _But then Naruto's face splits into a grin, so bright and sincere and like his mother's that Fugaku can feel his heart breaking all over again.  
**Disclaimer:** Naruto © Masashi Kishimoto.

**Notes: **This can be linked to my previous FugakuKushina one-shot, but can also stand on it's own. There aren't any actual references to the other story, so no one's missing out on anything if they haven't read it.

Dedicated to **UnderTheSky-xxo**, whose amazing review to _LoveHateTragedy_ (which had me in a good mood all day) inspired this. The last line of this is actually semi-taken (a nicer word than 'plagariased') from the review. I hope you don't mind.

Minato/Mikoto after this, yes, yes?

* * *

Uchiha Fugaku is a man who most think have everything a man could possibly want. High status, a beautiful wife, two genius sons and the position as the patriarch of Konoha's most powerful and influential clan, he has it all.

This is what he constantly tells himself.

However, he is a shinobi, and the first thing he was taught was to see through other people's lies.

He wishes he hadn't been such a good student.

Then again, he wishes for a lot of things.

* * *

"Oi! You, kid—get back here! When I catch you, you'll be in such deep shit, even a thousand baths won't cure you of the stench!"

"Ha! Come and catch me first, _loser_!"

Fugaku is a Jounin and the Head of Konoha's Police Force, but even he is almost knocked off his feet as a blur of orange and yellow and blue rams into him clumsily, trying to escape from one of Konoha's watch-guards.

"Eh? Sorry, mister!" the boy yells over his shoulder to Fugaku, once he has steadied himself. He runs a few yards to the left and jumps over a fence, out of sight.

Fugaku stares at the empty spot where Naruto was, then turns around to watch as the guard runs up to him.

"Uchiha-sama!" the guard says, panting and out of breath once he has reached Fugaku.

"Good day," Fugaku replies curtly. "May I inquire as to why you are chasing after that boy?"

The guard, still trying to catch his breath, merely points towards the Hokage Mountain, where all the heads of their local leaders resided—

—with multicoloured spray paint all over them.

"That brat has defaced the sculptures of our Hokage-sama-tachii!" the guard says furiously. "I'm trying to capture him and make sure his misdemeanour doesn't go unpunished! This is the fifth time this month he's done something like this! Does he think that people have nothing better to do other than to chase after him?"

"Considering that the war has been over for eight years, it would appear so," Fugaku says. He inspects Naruto's crude handiwork from where he is standing, and chokes back his laughter at the sight of Minato's head with bright green and purple snot streaming down his nose.

"Nevertheless," the guard persists, "this act of… _desecration_ can't be ignored! He defiled Hokage Mountain! I'll—"

"Go and clean up their faces. I'll go after the boy."

"But Uchiha-sama—"

"Go," Fugaku demands with a steely glint in his eye.

The guard quivers before nodding his head vigorously and scampering off.

* * *

It doesn't take much for Fugaku to catch up to Naruto. The boy had thrown a few mediocre tricks behind him to buy himself some time—

(_something his mother would do_, Fugaku thinks, his heart swelling just a tad)

—but a ninja as skilled as Fugaku is has no problem overcoming these obstacles.

When he finally finds Naruto, the boy is sitting on the banks of the Nakano River, dipping his feet into the clear, cool water and gasping for air.

Fugaku clears his throat and watches amusedly as the small blonde boy practically jumps ten feet into the air at the realisation that he is found.

It takes a while for Naruto to calm down, but once he does, he squints at Fugaku and says, "Hey! You're the guy who I bumped into earlier!"

"Yes I am," Fugaku says, walking towards where he is and sitting down beside him.

"I already apologised."

"I know. I'm not here to turn you over to the council, Naruto."

"How do you know my name?" Naruto asks suspiciously, still unsure of whether to trust Fugaku or not. After all, the badge on the man's vest states that he belongs to the Konoha Police Force, and he _had_ just committed sacrilege against their current Hokage and their previous village leaders (may they rest in peace).

"Everyone in Konoha knows your name."

"Oh yeah," Naruto says, a little put-out. "But still, aren't you gonna punish me?"

Fugaku picks up a small pebble next to him and tosses it to the river. It skips eight times before sinking into the water.

"No," he says.

"Why not?"

"I don't think it would be worth my time to."

"Oh," Naruto says, bemused. He picks up a nearby pebble and imitates Fugaku's actions, but the pebble sinks immediately after initial contact with the water. Naruto frowns.

_He even _sounds_ like his father_, Fugaku thinks. _Where is Kushina?_

"Hey… You're Sasuke's dad, aren't you?" Naruto says, eyes widening at the revelation. "I saw the two of you together when you walked past Ichiraku the other week. I think. It was you, wasn't it?"

Fugaku merely nods his head to confirm the fact, half-afraid to look at the boy. He is so much—too much—like his father, and he does not know whether it is a good thing he doesn't remind him of Kushina or not.

"What are you doing here, mister?"

"Hn?"

"I mean, why are you sitting here with me and being so… _nice_ to me?"

"I'm being nice to you?" Fugaku snorts. Making small chat with the boy is civil, but could hardly be considered as _nice_.

"Well, no one else talks to me," Naruto elaborates dejectedly. "And when they do, they usually yell at me or insult me. But," he adds, putting on a brave face that Fugaku has seen before on another person and knows well, "who cares about them, ne?"

Fugaku looks at the boy for a few seconds, and—

(finds another reason to hate Minato)

—pities him.

"Who does indeed," Fugaku murmurs in reply, turning away from the boy.

"So yeah, _why_ are you talking to me?"

Fugaku pauses before saying, "I knew your mother. When she was younger."

Immediately, Naruto's eyes light up and an infectious grin spreads across his features, serving as another reminder to Fugaku of what he had lost.

"Really? What was she like?" Naruto asks excitedly.

Fugaku expects this question. Obviously, the boy wants to know what his mother was like, having never known her himself, but even as a million words enter Fugaku's mind, he cannot pick one that can describe the love of his life fully.

After a moment's silence, Fugaku says, "She was… perfect." Naruto watches in surprise as the stern Uchiha patriarch's expression softens and a smile flutters onto his aristocratic features before continuing. "She was kind. Funny. Beautiful. All of those and so much more."

"How about my dad? Did you know him too?"

_How could I not have?_ Fugaku wonders contemptibly, a scowl replacing the smile that had been on his face seconds before. Out loud, he says, "We only spoke a few times, but yes, I knew of him."

"What was he like?"

"He was…" Fugaku begins hesitatingly. He contemplates on what to say next. He could say that his father was a pompous, arrogant brat who bragged too much about his abilities. He could say that his father was a lying, stealing thief who cared more about his reputation than his family. He could say that his father didn't deserve someone like his mother.

He could say that his father was the reason that the whole village hated him.

But one glance at sincere curiousity that only a child who has never known his parents can possess quells his desire to spite Minato's son.

"He was a good man," Fugaku finally settles on, taking the high road. "He was a good shinobi and cared a lot about his village. He died protecting it."

Naruto stares at Fugaku before letting out a low whistle.

"… Wow," he says, awestruck. The usually loud boy then looks at his feet in silence, smiling to himself.

Fugaku observes him up close for the first time and thinks that Uzumaki Naruto is a sweet boy. He obviously is not the demon that the village makes him out to be, but Fugaku feels that there is something bitter about this introduction of sorts. Kind of like the sour candy that Sasuke likes, because his son does not like sweet things.

Kushina liked sweet things. Fugaku bets that her son does too.

"You're a lot like your mother. You look just like your father, but you're definitely your mother's son," Fugaku says, looking at the boy and actually seeing him. "She would be proud of you."

Naruto's face splits into a grin, so bright and sincere and like his mother's that Fugaku can feel his heart breaking all over again.

* * *

As the two part their separate ways, Fugaku realises that he was wrong in his initial impression of Uzumaki Naruto. Seeing so much of Kushina's habits and quirks in a boy that is practically Namikaze Minato's dead-ringer was like an out-of-body experience for Fugaku, so much so, that he still has to get his head around it.

He thinks the surrealism of it all has resulted in him seeing things, for as he enters the gates of the Uchiha compound, he sees a young, pretty, redheaded girl in her early twenties standing on his porch where Itachi and Sasuke are seated, observing the two boys as they converse with one another.

She is smiling. Always smiling.

She looks up as Fugaku nears them, and smiles another dazzlingly beautiful smile at him as Itachi greets him and Sasuke leaps up from where he is sitting to show him what Aniki had taught him earlier that day and _Otou-san, I've been practising my _Katon_, won't you come and see?_

Fugaku momentarily thinks that he is insane, and wonders what type of genjutsu he is caught up in until Sasuke tugs on his sleeve and asks him what's wrong.

"Itachi, Sasuke, go inside and help your mother prepare dinner," Fugaku says absentmindedly, eyes still on Kushina.

Sasuke furrows his brow and wonders out loud why Fugaku is staring blankly at that spot on the wall as Itachi quietly ushers him through the front door, telling him to mind his own business and to give their father some peace.

"Kushina?" Fugaku croaks uncertainly, once the boys are gone.

_Your sons are so cute_, he thinks he hears her say. _Itachi looks just like you. Heck, Itachi _is_ just like you._

He is insane. That must be it. Either that, or the sheer amount of orange Naruto had worn must have reacted with his Sharingan to give him hallucinations. Yes, that must be it.

_So, I take it that you've met Naruto earlier today,_ the spectre-that-is-not-Kushina says.

Fugaku nods his head, still not daring to believe what is standing in front of him.

_I see_, Kushina's doppelganger says. She turns away from Fugaku and walks along the porch until she finds a window that looks into the kitchen. Mikoto, Itachi and Sasuke are in there; Mikoto checking to see whether the rice is cooked, Itachi cutting up vegetables and Sasuke standing on a chair, stirring some soup in a pot. _Quite the happy family you've got in there, ne, Fugaku?_

Fugaku doesn't know what to say, so he doesn't say anything at all. He had long ago found out that between Kushina and himself, words were never necessary.

_You've done well for yourself. Your parents would have approved of this, if nothing else._

Ouch. That stung. This must be Kushina, Fugaku reasons, changing his mind. No other dead person (who should be above such petty, human things) would make such a personal jab like that.

Then again, no other _living_ person could hold a grudge like Kushina could either, because although Kushina was kind and gracious and forgiving, she was also like an elephant—

(that analogy earned Fugaku a hard smack across the head and a _My God, Fugaku, why can't you compliment a girl _normally_?)_

—and never forgets.

_Ne, Fugaku._

"Hn?"

_Look after Naruto. And try to fix him for me. Please._

"I will."

_Promise?_

"Of course," Fugaku whispers without hesitation, because he found it physically impossible to deny her (almost) anything before, so why should now be any different?

Before he knows it, she is fading, fading, fading away into nothing, away from his grasp—

(_always _away from him, such an intangible goal)

—and within seconds, she is gone, like she was never there in the first place, and Fugaku looks at the trees surrounding him and silently asks them to keep this secret, along with the many others he has asked them to keep in the past—

(they always do, as they cannot refuse any request of his either).

* * *

Fugaku is killed three weeks later. By his own son.

As he shields Mikoto from Itachi, he wonders where he went wrong, and how Kushina could have trusted him to fix her son, when he hadn't even realised that his own was beyond broken.

And as he falls to the ground, half-dead, he apologises to Mikoto, to Sasuke and to Itachi, for being such a failure.

Then, as he breathes his last breath, he apologises in advance to Naruto, for not being able to be there for him in the future, and to Kushina, for breaking—

(another one of)

—his promise(s).

Of course, Kushina had already forgiven him long before Itachi had even begun plotting the clan's massacre months ago—

(she loves him too much to stay mad at him for long).

Their story is not one that ends happily, but the fact that _they _happened to begin with was more than good enough for them.


End file.
